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Browsing All Posts filed under »Music: Hindi Cinema«
Music Notes #2: Exploring the ‘Raja brought Tamils back from Hindi music’ urban myth
So this comes from a recent comment from a reader (as it keeps coming up) that in the 1970s, Tamils were under sway to Hindi film music until the arrival of Ilaiyaraaja brought them back to Tamil music. I have asked many people born in the 1950s and 60s about this — family and others. […]
Interview: AR Rahman (BAFTA Breakthrough, Taare Ginn, Ponniyin Selvan…)
October 27, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult… Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
#AskBR – Jagame Thandiram
June 23, 2021
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one… or talk about actors and directors… or take on a few YouTube comments… For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
#AskBR – Remembering SPB with singer Srinivas
June 4, 2021
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one… or talk about actors and directors… or take on a few YouTube comments… For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Readers Write In #348: What I wanted to ask Rahman
March 22, 2021
(by Madan Mohan) The day I signed up for the Film Companion Front Row discussion with A R Rahman, I formulated the question I wanted to ask him. When the discussion started, I was maybe the second guy to punch in my question in the chatbox. But the numbers were against me from the get […]
My interview by Venky Ramachandran – On music
February 24, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2021 Venky Ramachandran.
Interview: Bombay Jayashri
February 2, 2021
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2021 Film Companion.
Readers Write In #323: Reminiscences of a Yesudas concert
January 11, 2021
(by Jayram Sataluri) It was Sunday, April 17th 2011. I was at JP Stevens High School in Edison, New Jersey waiting outside the school.I did not have the exact money to pay for the ticket. But a family friend who I hadn’t seen in a decade understood my predicament and paid for it. I paid […]
Interview: Suresh Krissna recalls his journey with SPB
September 30, 2020
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Interview: YG Mahendran, Kavithalaya Krishnan, Kalpana remember SPB
September 29, 2020
For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
#AskBR – Remembering SPB
September 28, 2020
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one… or talk about actors and directors… or take on a few YouTube comments… For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Remembering SP Balasubrahmanyam through the MSV era, the Ilaiyaraaja era, and beyond
September 25, 2020
A journey through the great singer’s songs in Tamil cinema, by the two great composers who used him the most, and used him the best. How on earth do you write about SPB? How do you contain the vastness of his accomplishments, the vast pleasures he has brought us, in a couple of thousand words? […]
The spirit of Rangeela, at 25: A still-colourful fantasy from Ram Gopal Varma, AR Rahman Aamir Khan, Urmila Matondkar
September 8, 2020
At a macro level, there’s literally nothing you can sense at a one-line level and say, “Wow, this is going to be huge.” But the beautiful “micro” touches make the movie. You don’t associate the word “benign” with Ram Gopal Varma. You associate it with someone like Sooraj Barjatya, whose Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! had […]
The music of Bandish Bandits on Amazon Prime Video: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy go all out in a magnificent East-meets-West soundtrack
August 3, 2020
Over the years, our film music has become increasingly Western. But listening to the stunningly classical “Garaj Garaj”, you wonder: Is OTT poised to change the OST? Here’s the description for Bandish Bandits on the Amazon Prime Video site: “Radhe a singing prodigy from a classical background & Tamanna, a pop sensation on the rise […]
#AskBR – AR Rahman
July 31, 2020
In which I answer a few questions on an older film… or a new one… or talk about actors and directors… or take on a few YouTube comments… For more, subscribe to FILM COMPANION SOUTH: http://bit.ly/2xoNult Copyright ©2020 Film Companion.
Dil Bechara
July 15, 2020
Saroj Khan: Breaking down the choreography that created hits for Sridevi and Madhuri Dixit
July 9, 2020
Like in our classical dance, the idea was to create a “movement” or a “step” that illustrated the lyric. This is the tradition Saroj Khan inherited, and she ran with it. It’s no accident that Saroj Khan’s best-known dance choreography came in the Sridevi-Madhuri Dixit era. Indian mainstream cinema was still “Indian”, and not “Westernised”. […]
Hemant Kumar: On his birth centenary, a musical flashback
June 16, 2020
Recalling some of the composer-singer’s music, from the sombre Guru Dutt films to Girl Friend, which had ‘Boom booma boom’. When it comes to films, we may admire the choices an actor makes, but there’s always a doubt: Is this great bit of dialogue delivery the actor’s own choice, or did the director prompt him […]
The unshackling of Tamil film music from the Carnatic idiom happened long before Ilaiyaraaja (addenda)
June 12, 2020
The unshackling of Tamil film music from the Carnatic idiom happened long before Ilaiyaraaja
June 8, 2020
The maestro is a talent that comes along once in the bluest of moons. My point is simply that his genius doesn’t need the negation of everyone who came before him. June 2 came and went. And with the day, Ilaiyaraja’s birthday, a hundred tribute pieces came and went into the Internet’s memory. If someone […]
Baradwaj Rangan 
November 17, 2021
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